The following is from Mother Jones online. Isn't it nice to see that we Americans are so transparent, even our Halloween purchases reflect our political leaning?"According to Fortune magazine, more than one Halloween mask retailer has claimed they can correctly predict who will win the White House. Spirit Halloween, the largest seasonal Halloween vendor in the US, says Bush outsold Kerry two to one in 2004, Gore sold 14 percent fewer masks in 2000, and Clinton masks won with 71 percent in 1996.
We decided to update Fortune's presidential mask findings for 2008 thus far; here's what we found.
At Buycostumes.com, which tracks the sales of its paper masks, Obama is currently ahead 54 to 46 percent against McCain, though Sarah Palin masks are outselling Joe Biden masks three to one. Buycostumes.com's poll page has a US map with state breakdowns, including a few noteworthy results: Texas and Mississippi have gone blue this year, while Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine favor Republican masks. The erratic results suggest that some are buying masks to support while others to mock the candidates, though in the past, total sales—regardless of motive—have predicted the winning candidate.
Over at Amazon.com a running tally updates each hour with the latest sales of vinyl and paper masks. Obama's ahead there, too, though his mask is slightly cheaper: $12.90 versus $12.95 for McCain.
Overall this year, Obama is ahead, with 66 percent of national sales. His mask has hefty margins in all of the swing states, though McCain's is close in Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
But nothing is set in stone: Most costume sales are made in the last two weeks before the holiday. Can your Halloween garb affect the election? Notes Buycostumes.com, "This poll can be bought!'"
—Brittney Andres
As you can see here, both candidates are a Head, so no clear winner.
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- At the Hard Rock Café on Thursday, it was clear who won Palin Bingo.
Young voters play Palin Bingo during the vice presidential debate on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia.
The game was the focus of a group of four friends, all in their 20s and early 30s, as they put Xs in boxes containing keywords they anticipated Gov. Sarah Palin might say during Thursday's vice presidential debate.
Words like: Special needs, Wasilla, maverick, Main Street, Washington outsider.
"Special needs ... I won bingo!" shouted Laura Butler, 30.
Satisfied with her win, and a full hour into the debate between Republican Palin and Democrat Sen. Joe Biden, she headed for the door.
"I thought it was entertaining and so, you know, it was fun," she said, a White Stripes song blaring in the background.
"I'm an [Sen. Barack] Obama supporter, and I couldn't see anything changing that," said Butler's 27-year-old friend Ryan Carrabine.
The event was sponsored by the nonpartisan organization Rock the Vote, which registered 1.9 million voters ages 18-25 this year. Tonight's debate was the only vice presidential debate scheduled before the November 4 election.
Half his bingo card filled, Daryll Cordeiro, 30, said he was unimpressed with both candidates' responses on nearly every topic from health care to Iraq. He said he'll probably vote for a third-party candidate. Watch how the debate left some young voters wanting more substance »
Many in the room couldn't point to specific issues they felt went unanswered. Rather, they said they wanted to be moved, they wanted to feel something. They wanted to see some genuine fire behind the podiums, not hear another campaign pitch.
"Biden's response to gay marriage was more PC because he was saying he didn't feel like it should be the government's choice and that it should be left up to the individual's choice," said Aaronica Merritt, 25.
She thought the debate was engaging, but said Palin is not ready for the White House.
"The only reason why she was prepared for this debate was because she had a script," she said. "I think that Biden made really good arguments about health care and about the war in Iraq by bringing up that McCain voted against funding the troops just as Obama did."
Merritt is torn because she is adamantly anti-abortion, which aligns with Palin and McCain's platform, but is for gay marriage, which attracts her to the Obama-Biden side.
This year will mark the first time she has voted in a presidential election, she said. Previous elections made her yawn, says Merritt.
"I just didn't think there was a strong enough difference between John Kerry and George Bush," Merritt said. "Now, there is a huge difference, and there's just a much higher degree of interest overall, and you feel energized. You feel like, for once, I'm being addressed; for once my generation might count for something when it comes to deciding who is our president."
Others were less impressed.
"I'm disgusted by the whole process because I don't see a difference between either of them: Obama, McCain, Palin or Biden," Cordeiro said. "[Biden and Palin] are agreeing on so much. You take tax reform, for instance. What did they say that was different, really? They aren't speaking to me. There's all this talk about change, change, change. It's all gimmicks."
But Georgia State University student Bryan Lariscy, who was leaning toward voting for Obama, said Palin did a great job taking on Biden.
"She took some cheap shots, but it worked for her, and I think she's doing really, really well," he said. "Biden is not doing so well. He's holding back way too much. He should be saying a lot more to her, taking her on more."
When Palin took a shot at the mainstream media, several in the crowd looked at each other and chuckled.
"If it really mattered, if it was really close between Obama and McCain, I would go with Obama," Butler said, sipping a tall peach drink. "But that's not because I like him or that he speaks to me. He doesn't. They are all the same. But I don't like McCain. It's a matter, to me, of who you don't want."
The Rock the Vote event was intended to register new voters. But no one registered to vote during the debate, according to volunteer Demarcus Peters, and most of the tables cleared out before the debate was over.
Peters, 31, owns a nonprofit community development business in Atlanta.
"I think people in this room really cared what was going on in this debate," he said. "People were holding their breath waiting for Palin to make a big mistake. I think this event was fairly successful. But I could see the excitement here. No one can say that overall young people don't care what's going on."
Palin repeated buzz phrases--"greed and corruption of Wall Street," for instance--over and over. (She was obviously coached to use the word maverick repeatedly, former Republican Senator Rick Santorum observed after the debate.) For some viewers, her autopilot replies might be a turnoff. But for conservatives and independents who want to like her, she probably performed well enough--and she probably performed well enough to stop the hemorrhaging she had caused the campaign.… After the debate, Santorum commented, "Did she show she had a familiarity with a number of particular policy matters? Not particularly." But, he added, she had come across as "clear and concise" and had managed to convey a positive impression of herself and her views to the American public.…When Biden praised Obama, he praised his ideas, his proposals. When Palin hailed McCain, she hailed him, his personal qualities. Fighter. Maverick. Reformer. The debate, in a way, was a contest between a policy-person and a people-person. A CBS News poll of uncommitted voters found that 46 percent of them scored Biden the winner, over 21 percent who favored Palin. A CNN poll gave Biden a 51-to-36 percent win."Full article is here http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/10062_veep_debate_an.html
Educational background of the Presidential candidatesBarack Obama:Occidental College - Two years.Columbia University - B.A. political science, majored in international relations.Harvard - Juris Doctorate (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude Law DegreeJoe Biden:University of Delaware - B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctorate (J.D.) Law DegreeJohn McCain:United States Naval Academy - Class rank 894 of 899Sarah Palin:Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semesterNorth Idaho College - 2 semesters - general studyUniversity of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalismMatanuska-Susitna College - 1 semesterUniversity of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A in journalism
I was born in Long Branch, NJ on the Jersey shore and lived there until I was a junior in high school. From there, I moved to New Lothrop, Michigan to finish my last two years of high school. I returned to Michigan for one disasterous semester of college, but moved to Florida. I have owned a restaurant in PA, drove taxi in Jamestown, NY, and lived in Philadelphia before CA. I have a BA in Psychology/Sociology from Thomas A. Edison State College, a MSW (Temple University), and my Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco.
The following is from Mother Jones online. Isn't it nice to see that we Americans are so transparent, even our Halloween purchases reflect our political leaning? "According to Fortune magazine, more than one Halloween mask retailer has claimed they can correctly predict who will win the White House. Spirit Halloween, the largest seasonal Halloween vendor in the US, says Bush outsold Kerry two to one in 2004, Gore sold 14 percent fewer masks in 2000, and Clinton masks won with 71 percent in 1996. 
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